The Samsung Gear S3 battery drain issue has been troubling users for some time now. Though the Korean firm seemingly fixed the bug with an update earlier this year, users have again started complaining about it.

Gear S3 battery drain issue resurfaces

Users dealing with the Samsung Gear S3 battery drain issue claim the battery runs out in just a few hours.

“Getting the watch from the charger, it indicates 100% charge. The watch only lasts about 5 hours. Before putting the watch back on the charger, it indicated 10% battery,” one user complained on Samsung’s community forums, which are filled with similar comments.

It must be noted that the Samsung Gear S3 battery drain issue is not a new problem, and Samsung seemed to have fixed it earlier this year. However, it has somehow returned to haunt users. Moreover, the problem seems to have intensified as many users are now experiencing it.

Affected users say the Samsung Gear S3 battery drain issue came up only a few days ago, so the most recent firmware update can’t be blamed for it because it arrived long ago. An app update could be causing the issue, but nothing can be said with surety. Although it is difficult to say what is causing the issue, the good news is that Samsung is aware of it and is working on a fix, according to tech site Piunikaweb.

“Unfortunately all we know is that the development team has said it will be fixed in a future update and we cannot speculate on when future updates will be released. I’m sorry we cannot offer more,” a Samsung forum moderator said.

Hopefully a future update will fix the issue permanently. The moderator gave no clue about when we can expect a fix, but if the issue is with an app, it could come soon.

Other recent issues with the Gear S3

It is not just the Gear S3 battery drain issue that has troubled users. Previously, many users also complained about battery charging and overheating issues with the Gear S3. A few months ago, several users complained that after the update to Tizen 3.0, their watch would not charge to 100%. Instead, it stopped charging at around 90%.

Users said the watch stopped charging at around 90% due to overheating and had to be taken off the charger to cool it down. Then it needed to put back on the charger to reach a 100% charge. Though it was not a major issue, it still was quite frustrating for users. However, Samsung fixed the issue with an update in July. The update reportedly changed the algorithms used for battery charging.

Then in early August, Samsung Gear owners complained about problems connecting the Gear S3 to their smartphone after the Android 9.0 Pie update. Due to this issue, the Samsung Gear app was unable to connect to the wearable if the phone was running Android 9.0 Pie. The app would open and start to load, but it would soon crash.

Even if the wearable was connected to the smartphone before, the update to Android Pie broke the connection. Following the complaints, Samsung acknowledged the issue and then released the fix on Aug. 14.

Samsung Galaxy Watch

The Samsung Gear S3 was released in November 2016. In August, Samsung launched the Galaxy Watch, which succeeded the Gear S3. The watch comes with a circular display protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass DX panel. It is also water resistant with a 5 ATM rating and is MIL-STD-810G-certified for durability.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch also runs on the Tizen OS, but it features an always-on display and a rotating bezel UI. To give the feel of a traditional watch, Samsung added analogue watch ticks and hourly chimes. Further, it offers heart rate monitoring via a built-in sensor and features a dedicated stress management tracker as well.

The watch also has a sleep tracker, which is claimed to monitor all levels of sleep. Further, the watch is capable of tracking 39 workout profiles, including 21 new indoor exercises. It could also help users with better calorie management via the Samsung Health app.

Similar to the Gear S3, the Galaxy Watch is also plagued with issues related to its battery, sleep tracker and more.

Author: Aman JainAman is MBA (Finance) with an experience on both Marketing and Finance side. He has worked as a Risk Analyst for AIR Worldwide, and is currently leading VeRa FinServ, a Financial Research firm. Favorite pastimes include watching science fiction movies, reviewing tech gadgets, playing PC games and cricket. - Email him at amanjain@valuewalk.com